AIDs Drug Soars In Price After Being Acquired By Investor

The Internet is in a full scale uproar over the acquisition, and price increase of a medicine created to help stop parasitic infection. The medicine, Daraprim, which has been on the market for 62 years, is the standard of care for a food-borne illness called toxoplasmosis caused by a parasite that can severely affect those with compromised immune systems. Turing Pharmaceuticals purchased the rights to the drug last month and almost immediately raised prices. Although some price increases have been caused by shortages, others have resulted from a business strategy of buying old neglected drugs and turning them into high-priced “specialty drugs.”

Martin Shkreli, the founder and chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, said that the drug is so rarely used that the impact on the health system would be minuscule and that Turing would use the money it earns to develop better treatments for toxoplasmosis, with fewer side effects.